Game Engine Guidance

Posted 12 February 2012 - 10:22 PM

Hello everyone,

I have taken some time off in the last month or two for personal reasons and school. I am jumping back into game programming and and looking to write a 'small' engine. I've previously created a small engine that will load .x meshes and textures. I was successful, even with the camera. Which if some remember, I had a lot of trouble with in C# because I was not understanding the concepts :\.

Now I want to further my skills and write a new engine with the following:

Application - and Direct X

Camera initiation / setup

Level loader

Game Objects

Mesh loader - Own format hopefully

Mesh Collision

Small physics

Small Audio engine

GUI - Hopefully

Now, here is why I am here.

1. Is there anything else I would need?

2. How would I go about this? Would I take my normal approach and start with the Application / Direct X setup? or should I write something else first?

I plan on using C++ and my current level of knowledge and understanding to complete this task. I in no way expect this engine to uphold graphics standards such as engines like Unreal Engine, Unity, Gamebryo and the engine BF3 uses. But I would like to develop something which in the future I can build upon to improve it.

Replies To: Game Engine Guidance

Re: Game Engine Guidance

Posted 13 February 2012 - 03:28 PM

First off, you should be aware by now that there is no real checklist for creating your engine until you know what it is going to be used for. I also have no idea why you are thinking about tackling C++ code when you had trouble with the concepts in C#, because good engine code is based around two factors primarily:

- Good OOP design.
- Effective use of design patterns.

If you are not completely comfortable with those concepts in C++ your 'engine' is going nowhere.

Re: Game Engine Guidance

Had a look at the preview for that book and I don't know exactly what it's trying to explain. It's trying to encompass everything about making games in one volume - not a good idea. Everyone who has given it top marks doesn't appear to be experienced.

In my opinion the Game Programming Gems Series is far superior for acquiring knowledge. I even know some of the authors who are very knowledgeable. You will find these in quite a few game studios.

stayscrisp, on 14 February 2012 - 09:07 AM, said:

You could also get an open source engine like irrlicht and take a look at how it works. Although there are better ways to do things than irrlicht, as the above book will show.